GROUND LEVEL (ONCE UPON A TIME IN NORTHERN IRELAND)
There's a certain formula to documentaries about recent history.
Usually politicians, journalists, academics, combatants and sometimes civil servants are lined up to provide an insider's view on wars, political spats, scandals and peacemaking.
Documentaries about Northern Ireland's Troubles have tended to follow this well worn path, relying heavily on insiders.
In the main, they have executed that formula very well.
Series like 'Endgame In Ireland,' 'Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History' or Peter Taylor's trilogy 'Provos,' 'Loyalists' and 'Brits,' have all benefited from the insights of key players who have been really informative about the conflict and efforts to secure peace.
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsFilmmaker James Bluemel is no stranger to shaking up that formula, though, in a bid to make sense of bloodshed.
Bluemel's five part BAFTA winning 2020 documentary miniseries 'Once Upon A Time In Iraq' was notable for the way it focused on ordinary people impacted by the 2003 invasion of the country by US troops, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Civil War, the post US insurgency and the war against Islamic State.
This year he returned with a five part BBC2 docuseries 'Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland' which was an equally ambitious attempt to make sense of the Troubles by focusing on the experiences of ordinary people.
Unlike any other documentary series about the conflict, most of the interviewees - with the exception of the Co Down comedian and chat show host Patrick Kielty and the punk entrepreneur Terri Hooley - are relatively unknown.
© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsThey include a former Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch officer, an IRA hunger striker turned novelist, an Ulster Defence Regiment member and her daughter, a working class loyalist shocked by a family secret, an RUC widow and a couple from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds who met through a shared love of punk rock.
Some of those interviewed have suffered horrendous loss.
Others were imprisoned for their part in the violence.
All of them lived in fear.
Each interviewee tries to explain to audiences outside of Northern Ireland what it was like to live in a society as bitterly divided as Northern Ireland.
© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsOver the course of five episodes, there are powerful stories like Richard's about what it was like to live in the nationalist Bogside area of Derry-Londonderry as rioters and soldiers squared off.
Tom, a teenage soldier, tells how he was struck by the similarities between his hometown in England and the communities in Northern Ireland he was patrolling until the violence erupted, colleagues were lost and he was injured.
June explains what it was like to grow up in a rural community during the Troubles before revealing a devastating story about how her childhood sweetheart Johnny was shot dead in the car park of a hospital after visiting her and their newborn baby because he was a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Billy, whose father was killed in a betting shop massacre in a nationalist working class neighbourhood of south Belfast, emotionally recalls the trauma of discovering his dad was gunned down.
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsAlan, whose wife and father-in-law died in an IRA bomb attack on Belfast on the loyalist Shankill Road, candidly shares the difficult path he took, trying to come to terms with his loss.
In the febrile atmosphere of a society consumed by conflict, Bluemel highlights the dangers of loose rhetoric and spiralling tit for tat violence and the radicalising impact words and deeds can have on impressionable young minds.
After hearing church leaders and prominent unionist politicians claim the Catholic Civil Rights Movement is a front for the IRA, James' response was to join a loyalist paramilitary group where he was responsible for minding their weapons cache.
Following Bloody Sunday, Ricky reveals he joined the IRA and wound up on the Dirty Protest and with colleagues dying around him in the Maze Prison on the 1981 republican hunger strike.
His wife Bernadette tells of her dismay at finding herself cast in the role of a republican prisoner's wife and the strain it put on their marriage because she didn't want to be involved in the conflict.
© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsAmid the stories, Bluemel and his team unearth archive footage of various interviewees - sharing it with them.
Their reactions as much older people are fascinating.
As they reflect on their lives, some interviewees have genuine regret. Others do not.
Some have forgiven those who killed their loved ones. Others cannot.
Some are mystified looking back on a total of 3,720 deaths over 25 years and the senselessness of it all.
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsWhile reflecting on a conflict whose after-effects are still being worked through, Bluemel is careful not to paint a picture that is all doom and gloom.
Amid the darkness are glimpses of normality.
Paddy Kielty, whose father was killed by loyalists in his hometown of Dundrum, rationalises his move into stand up comedy in the early 1990s.
Yvonne, a punk from a Catholic family ended up marrying Greg, the lead singer of The Outcasts who was from a Protestant background after meeting in Belfast's Harp Bar.
She humourously talks about how the venue was a safe haven for young people from a civil war that was raging on their doorsteps.
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air Films"You knew it was a safe space," she recalls.
"I mean, it was a dump but it was our dump."
The man who championed punk at the height of the Troubles, the record store owner Terri Hooley, whose life story was turned into Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn'a superb 2012 movie 'Good Vibrations,' notes how the genre's anti-authoritarian world view had a galvanising effect on young people in both communities.
Reflecting on his experience of the Troubles, he quips: "I wanted to say I partied a lot.
"I drank, did drugs and had a good time.. and I didn’t kill anybody.”
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsWith no politician, journalist or academic in sight, 'Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland' is a wonderful watch.
It's history told from the ground level.
And while hearing from leaders about historic events is undoubtedly important, the docuseries reaffirms why we also need to hear from the people who were impacted by those leaders' failures and successes.
Impeccably researched and sensitively told, 'Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland' is a real triumph.
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© BBC, Keo Films & Walk On Air FilmsLike Bluemel's previous Iraqi docuseries, it is human, honest and at times heartbreakingly raw.
Well received when it aired by the society it focuses on, it should also help audiences outside of Northern Ireland appreciate what living there was like during the conflict.
As the world tries to make sense of other conflict zones - not least the bloodshed in Ukraine, Gaza and Israel - let's hope more people outside of Northern Ireland watch this series and learn.
('Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland' was broadcast on BBC2 in UK from July 13-August 10, 2023)
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